High School Career Cynthia Kirchner My High School Experiences High school is a time of experimentation for many students. It can be a great, fun and fancy free time, a time of immense stress, or a time of drama. Many times a student in high school will experience all three types of times, just depending on the situation and the person, as well as the friends a person makes. If, like me a person does not make many friends there is a lot less sense of drama, and fun and fancy free time. If you add in a family illness and personal issues the stress mounts, and for most of my high school career it was like living in a pressure bomb, the more stress the more it felt like the bomb could explode at anytime. The feeling eventually went away and I gained more interpersonal relationships with good people. During my high school career I had many diverse experiences.
My freshman year I went from a school of one hundred kids in the whole school to a class of over two hundred students in just the freshman class alone. This was scary for me and intimidated me greatly. I eventually became more comfortable in the atmosphere, and started to dive into the work. I loved to learn and I loved to read so most of my classes came easily to me, except World Cultures. That class I had difficulties in because the homework was so confusing and I did not really understand a lot of the material. During class discussions, after the teacher explained the material, a kid in the class and I would argue about that day’s discussion question, every class. He eventually grew to become one of my few very good friends. My freshman year was a big adjustment year for me. Not only did I completely change my school dimensions, my home life was still in upheaval because my sister had only just begun treatment earlier in the year and had complications with it. This would continue to happen through my entire high school career. This also forced me to rely on myself to get my work done; I did not have my mother watching over my shoulder every day to make sure that I got my homework done. Since I was still getting used to my home life I did not join any extracurricular activities my freshman year, however I did in my sophomore year.
My sophomore year I became very involved. I was in the Science Olympiad Club, which competed in scientific experiments and competitions. I also was in the Close Up program which took a trip to Washington D.C. to learn about the government and how individuals can make a difference. I also took the hardest science available to sophomores, a pre-AP Chemistry course which was the first half of the AP course in the school, and I passed it with a B average. I also took honors Spanish, and also passed with a B. I made a few more friends but not very close friends. My home life was going better and it was more stable. At this time I was living at home most of the time again, this would change again during my junior year.
The hardest in my high school career was my junior year. My sister relapsed with cancer; this was a very discouraging time for my family as well as very unstable. I moved a lot during this time. I stayed with a family friend, whose son is like my brother, my uncle and cousin, my grandparents, and a few others for short periods of time. My grades did suffer a bit during this time, but they did not fall much overall. I made sure that I was balancing myself and keeping myself in check. I also participated in some extracurricular activities, such as the yearbook club and guidance aids program which helped the guidance councilors file paperwork and deliver messages to others. I gained some friends my junior year, but it never felt right, like I did not really belong hanging out with them. It was not until my senior year that I would form true friends and gain a real social life.
Senior year was my best year by far. My sister, while still sick was at least stable, which meant that my life was at least a bit more stable. I did many extracurricular activities this year, as well as hang out with my new-found friends. I was a guidance aid, I was a senior mentor (which was seniors going into freshman advisories and helping them get to know the school and help them to socialize with upperclassmen, my first experience in teaching), I was a volunteer for the homecoming committee, I was part of the National Honors Society, which had me tutoring students, and therefore another opportunity for me to give teaching a try. I met my two of my best friends this year in my English class, and my “brother” moved and came to my high school and started dating a girl, who had been in both my chemistry class and Spanish class from sophomore year. The girl and I became best friends; she is also at URI this year. I also met my best guy friend in my science class. My senior year science class was the class taught by the head of the science department and the class where I fell completely in love with everything science and physics related. He was the teacher who really influenced me to go into physics. My history teacher, for the past three years, was the one who really influenced me to go into teaching, she and my English teacher, who was also my freshman English teacher, really touched me and helped me through the hard times with my sister. I want to help students like they helped me. They all introduced the idea of going to URI to me, because it is such a good university for both the sciences, especially physics, and education. I could also afford to come here because I could afford the tuition charged with the scholarships I received, the financial aid that was offered, and the two summer jobs I worked. When I came for a visit I loved the school, and because of my self-reliance and dedication to school I was able to get into the Honors Program, which sealed the deal for me. I accepted the offer.
Although I did not have many friends and was full of stress my freshman through junior years, my senior year turned out to be a very relaxing and enjoyable year for me. I was able to make many good friends, get good grades, and get into my first choice school. This is because I worked very hard to get to where I was and had developed the skills in previous years to help me balance my life. My determination delivered me to a place where I could see my hard work pay off. I was able to start to see if I wanted to teach, having the opportunity to tutor different ages, and having prior experience in my extracurricular activities. Doing a variety of different activities I was able to see what I was good at and what I liked to do. My teachers really helped me, by supporting me emotionally and helping me with academics. They also helped me look into the best colleges for me. I want to help students like they helped me. My teachers were truly my inspiration for what I want to do in my life. I want to make a difference in the lives of teenagers, and hopefully inspire their love of science as my teachers inspired mine.
Cynthia Kirchner
My High School Experiences
High school is a time of experimentation for many students. It can be a great, fun and fancy free time, a time of immense stress, or a time of drama. Many times a student in high school will experience all three types of times, just depending on the situation and the person, as well as the friends a person makes. If, like me a person does not make many friends there is a lot less sense of drama, and fun and fancy free time. If you add in a family illness and personal issues the stress mounts, and for most of my high school career it was like living in a pressure bomb, the more stress the more it felt like the bomb could explode at anytime. The feeling eventually went away and I gained more interpersonal relationships with good people. During my high school career I had many diverse experiences.
My freshman year I went from a school of one hundred kids in the whole school to a class of over two hundred students in just the freshman class alone. This was scary for me and intimidated me greatly. I eventually became more comfortable in the atmosphere, and started to dive into the work. I loved to learn and I loved to read so most of my classes came easily to me, except World Cultures. That class I had difficulties in because the homework was so confusing and I did not really understand a lot of the material. During class discussions, after the teacher explained the material, a kid in the class and I would argue about that day’s discussion question, every class. He eventually grew to become one of my few very good friends. My freshman year was a big adjustment year for me. Not only did I completely change my school dimensions, my home life was still in upheaval because my sister had only just begun treatment earlier in the year and had complications with it. This would continue to happen through my entire high school career. This also forced me to rely on myself to get my work done; I did not have my mother watching over my shoulder every day to make sure that I got my homework done. Since I was still getting used to my home life I did not join any extracurricular activities my freshman year, however I did in my sophomore year.
My sophomore year I became very involved. I was in the Science Olympiad Club, which competed in scientific experiments and competitions. I also was in the Close Up program which took a trip to Washington D.C. to learn about the government and how individuals can make a difference. I also took the hardest science available to sophomores, a pre-AP Chemistry course which was the first half of the AP course in the school, and I passed it with a B average. I also took honors Spanish, and also passed with a B. I made a few more friends but not very close friends. My home life was going better and it was more stable. At this time I was living at home most of the time again, this would change again during my junior year.
The hardest in my high school career was my junior year. My sister relapsed with cancer; this was a very discouraging time for my family as well as very unstable. I moved a lot during this time. I stayed with a family friend, whose son is like my brother, my uncle and cousin, my grandparents, and a few others for short periods of time. My grades did suffer a bit during this time, but they did not fall much overall. I made sure that I was balancing myself and keeping myself in check. I also participated in some extracurricular activities, such as the yearbook club and guidance aids program which helped the guidance councilors file paperwork and deliver messages to others. I gained some friends my junior year, but it never felt right, like I did not really belong hanging out with them. It was not until my senior year that I would form true friends and gain a real social life.
Senior year was my best year by far. My sister, while still sick was at least stable, which meant that my life was at least a bit more stable. I did many extracurricular activities this year, as well as hang out with my new-found friends. I was a guidance aid, I was a senior mentor (which was seniors going into freshman advisories and helping them get to know the school and help them to socialize with upperclassmen, my first experience in teaching), I was a volunteer for the homecoming committee, I was part of the National Honors Society, which had me tutoring students, and therefore another opportunity for me to give teaching a try. I met my two of my best friends this year in my English class, and my “brother” moved and came to my high school and started dating a girl, who had been in both my chemistry class and Spanish class from sophomore year. The girl and I became best friends; she is also at URI this year. I also met my best guy friend in my science class. My senior year science class was the class taught by the head of the science department and the class where I fell completely in love with everything science and physics related. He was the teacher who really influenced me to go into physics. My history teacher, for the past three years, was the one who really influenced me to go into teaching, she and my English teacher, who was also my freshman English teacher, really touched me and helped me through the hard times with my sister. I want to help students like they helped me. They all introduced the idea of going to URI to me, because it is such a good university for both the sciences, especially physics, and education. I could also afford to come here because I could afford the tuition charged with the scholarships I received, the financial aid that was offered, and the two summer jobs I worked. When I came for a visit I loved the school, and because of my self-reliance and dedication to school I was able to get into the Honors Program, which sealed the deal for me. I accepted the offer.
Although I did not have many friends and was full of stress my freshman through junior years, my senior year turned out to be a very relaxing and enjoyable year for me. I was able to make many good friends, get good grades, and get into my first choice school. This is because I worked very hard to get to where I was and had developed the skills in previous years to help me balance my life. My determination delivered me to a place where I could see my hard work pay off. I was able to start to see if I wanted to teach, having the opportunity to tutor different ages, and having prior experience in my extracurricular activities. Doing a variety of different activities I was able to see what I was good at and what I liked to do. My teachers really helped me, by supporting me emotionally and helping me with academics. They also helped me look into the best colleges for me. I want to help students like they helped me. My teachers were truly my inspiration for what I want to do in my life. I want to make a difference in the lives of teenagers, and hopefully inspire their love of science as my teachers inspired mine.